21st Century Educator

I am sitting in an internet cafe and have been all morning. Working away on accreditation documents for our school accreditation coming up next term. I thought I may escape with my laptop down here and get my work done. I must admit beside the fact that it has been much more relaxing than sitting at work I have been much more productive!! I am connected wirlessly to an amazingly fast free internet connection (well free when I buy a coffee) logged into our school network keeping in touch with work. The documents have now been finished and I have been inspired by this lovely setting to come up with some great ways to present student work samples for accreditation.

As I was leaving work this morning a colleague gave me a copy of a DVD he did for his class Christian Education program. It is an awesome way for kids to learn so many wonderful skills. Not only was his objectives of students learning bible stories achieved, he also built confidence in their reading and public speaking. When the accreditation officers come to our school I just hope as they see these work samples they also see the amazing learning that is taking place!! So as I am connected here recieving inspiration I simply log into school email and share my excitment with staff back at school. Within moments I get replies from 2 staff who are keen to learn more about video editing and how they can use it for assesment and student work samples. WOW!!!

So now I hit my only problem of the morning…. My battery is dieing!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! Oh well I am sure that can be solved some time soon!! Comments?!?!?!

I am sitting at my desk here at work supervising my students do the last part of their Year 7 state literacy test. I thought I would jump on and check my email and see what people have been saying about the latest Podcast. I am amazed how many people just email instead of post a comment on the blog. Not quite sure why that is. Anyway I received an interesting message from a student teacher who graduates at the end of this year. He was very keen to hear some further thoughts on my blog project and Podcast project in the classroom. While I was replying it made me realise how much of a great collaboration tool this technology is. If my ramblings can be of any help to teachers or those training to be teachers then this has been all worth it.

So I move onto assessment…. As I sit here and watch these kids struggle through this test I am realising how little benefit it all is for them. In actual fact a colleague mentioned to me this morning that he felt that it was just a way for the government to advertise that a large number of 7th grade students in our state were meeting the benchmarks. (What ever they may be?!?!?!)

What I fail to understand is the lack of true learning that this test is evaluating. The tasks are comprehension activities (multiple choice – or as my kids call them – Multi guess), spelling and a writing task. Many of which are irrelevant to their world. Many schools prep the kids for these tests so that their school looks good out their in the education market. This bugs me as it has nothing to do with the quality of instruction. My students learnt the most useful and beneficial skills during the blogging project and the class Podcast. They are expressing, justifying, analysing, synthesising and most importantly thinking for themselves. There is critical literacy at work and the students are engaged in the learning process. This test tells me if they can spell a few words – Many of which I haven’t heard used in conversation (written or spoken) for some time. I am all for comprehension skills being developed but reading a story and answering questions is not the best way to asses it. Think about this one – students read a novel which has a number of interesting issues in it. They are then asked to blog about those issues over a period of time, answering questions and posing new thoughts. Throughout this exercise I as the teacher have the opportunity to see if they not only understand what happened in the book but see if it has impacted their learning and made them thinking about real life issues that affect them. With a bit of effort from the teacher in formulating good questions that provoke thinking, students will engage and learn in a way that impacts their world. Once again we integrate the learner not what the “bureaucratic suits” that think they know what students should know.

Oh and these tests have no way of assessing technological skills!! Hmm and my state government is calling itself the “Smart State”

Does this raise more QUESTIONS?!?!?!??! I am interested to hear your thoughts.

Ok well I got a couple of emails telling me that it is not such a big deal to add the files from the conference to my podcast directory. Therefore, I have done so… Make sure you listen to episode 9 first of all.

Cheers,

Brett

Mark McCrindle Communication skills for the 21st century…. Make sure you listen to episode 9 before downloading this file.
Right click to download the podcast

Mark McCrindle Engaging Generation Y Keynote…
Right click to download the podcast

In this issue: Share IT Conference with show notes and conference sessions! Please send comments to edtech@brettmoller.com

Right click to download the podcast

Files and show notes for episode 9.
Below are the show notes that I talk about in episode 9 of the podcast.
Mp3 Files of each session referred to in the podcast.
Keynote Session notes.
Notes from Generation Y Workshop

Had a great day at the conference today…. I am about to add some files and podcast on it!! Stay tuned ladies and gents!!

In this issue: Student Podcast introduction WITH SHOW NOTES!! Please send comments to edtech@brettmoller.com

Right click to download the podcast

I have uploaded the show file. Sorry it took a while to figure out some problems. Enjoy….